Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Italy~ Secret Point~ Francesco Di Tommaso on his "Tube Machine"

January, 2011, Francesco Di Tommaso
Northern Mediterranean, Southern Italy

When Storms in the Mediterranean kick up a long enough fetch for swells to hit Italy.....This happens.
Frigid winter air and Santa Cruz winter water temp's Don't keep Francesco out of the water.

Back in 2007, Francesco told me, "I'd like you to shape me a gun.....disguised as a longboard".
This is what I shaped for him.   This 9-0, pulled-in double ender, with low relaxed rocker, subtle single-into-double bottom contour and a set of reverse-D-template quads that I designed for it....... is deceivingly fast.  This is what he is riding in these photos.
Dimensions:


Francesco and his wife Manuela both have an impressive command of the English language, but I still find myself doing this sometimes......trying to interpret his exact meaning.

in Italian this means, "I'm cool with it".
After riding it, he has named it,  "Tube Machine" or T.M. for short.

Thanks for the photos.  Aloha Bro.
JC

2 comments:

shea said...

what is the difference, ride-wise, between half-moon quads and a more traditional quad setup? that board looks super interesting..

JCWC said...

Hi Shea, the reverse-D templates are a very smooth fin to turn because of the radius profile on the trailing edges. Becausee of the depth of the leading edges, they still have plenty of hold. JC